It’s fair to say that there was a bit of concern in the air as Team Liquid announced a mutual parting with Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken as the young rifler was eager to move to Europe after a lengthy tenure with Team Liquid, bringing them to prominence throughout multiple events over three years.
Then Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo was rumored to be taking the riflers place – a necessary change for Team Liquid that hasn’t had a dedicated AWPer for years. Considering that Elige, the newly promoted Grim, and Twistzz all fulfilled the same role of rifling with Stewie2K changing to IGL to phase nitr0 out of the lineup (who went over to Valorant to join Hiko and Steel), yet a dedicated AWP there was not.
Stewie2K attempted to fulfill the AWPing role with a short-lived stint that led to frustration, and NAF is a hybrid rifler/sniper at best.
So when FalleN rejoined the team of Stewie2K today for a match against NaVi with a ferociously competent Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev (who has just been named as the number 2 player of professional Counter-Strike for 2020 by HLTV, losing out to ZywOo), there was a vested interest if this could be the return to form that Liquid has needed.
Gabriel Toledo was legendary as an AWPer back in 2016 on SK Gaming – where FalleN and Stewie2K first played together, and there were frank concerns that FalleN wouldn’t be able to hold a torch to his past glories. Yet Liquid wasn’t looking for a team-defining player – they just needed a consistent AWPer that could hold long sight-lines and angles.
So when FalleN orchestrated a comeback on the second map of Nuke (NaVi pick) after dropping (12-14) that saw Team Liquid bringing a magnificent comeback with a T-sided win by elimination, two demolitions, and a final elimination that left Natus Vincere dumbfounded and upset as victory, and a third map, was deftly yanked from their hands.
S1mple had a fantastic series, consistently making eliminations through smoke and winning unfavorable duels, although Aleksandr Kostyliev managed to die three times from Molotovs throughout the entirety of the match.
S1mpler left the server with the most kills of the series, with 47 total, and FalleN compared with 34 kills. Yet statistics aren’t the entirety of the game; Grim had a massive showing on Inferno with a t-sided b-site 2v1 clutch, NAF held the most damage (and highest rating) at 93 ADR.
Team Liquid was able to turn around after a strong first map showing and grab a win against the third-highest rated team in the world. Having FalleN seemed to have changed the game drastically for the NA team, and they could very well be on the rise to the top once again if this isn’t a honeymoon stage for the NA team.
It may be the first time we’ve seen Gabriel Toledo smile in the past two years, at any rate.
